The user thinks about diagnosing the hard drive when the computer starts to work unstable, boot poorly and displays errors. The operating system has the appropriate standard tools for finding and eliminating errors, but it is better to use specialized programs with broader functionality.
Checking bad sectors of the hard drive using the Victoria program
The Victoria utility, which is well-known among users, has proven itself well in this regard, which serves to identify "bad" sectors and other problems associated with the hard drive. This software is free and undemanding to system resources, works under Windows, Dos operating systems.
To check the HDD using the Victoria utility, follow these steps. Before starting the check and recovery of bad sectors of the hard drive, go to the BIOS and set the SATA controller to IDE mode to work correctly with the hard drive.
Download the program from the Internet and install it on your computer. The interface language can be selected in Russian. It is better to work with the program from under DOS.
After installation, boot using a bootable flash in DOS mode and run the program. Press the English P on the keyboard and in the dialog box specify the HDD you want to check. If the hard drive has a SATA interface, select Ext in the selection menu. PCI ATA / SATA. You need to control the cursor using the keyboard. If you work with an ATA controller, then you should select the Primary Master disk port in linear reading mode.
Surface scan mode starts. Its results will be displayed in the window on the right. The program will show how many percent have already been checked and how much more time it will take to complete. When checking sectors, the application marks the broken sectors, marking them in green and red. The ones highlighted in green can be restored, formatting at a low level will help to bring them back into operation, and those marked in red cannot be practically restored.
Determination of the need to replace the hard drive based on the results of scanning with the Victoria program
If errors and bad sectors begin to be detected at 10-15% of the scan, you can safely stop the check, purchase a new hard drive and transfer information to it, since the hard drive being tested is obviously unusable and may fail at any time.
If broken sectors appear closer to the end of the check, then later they can be cut off with the help of the Victoria program, taken out of service. This can usually be done if the hard drive is large enough.
Press the F9 key and bring up the SMART table. Examine the contents of the items Reallocated sector count and Current pending sectors. The first of them indicates the number of sectors that fell into the reserve zone, and the second shows the sectors that the program considered suspicious. Based on the number of bad sectors, you can decide whether to buy a new hard drive or try to restore the old one.
